Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Pardon my Latin, but once in a while I like to shake up my meat sauce modus operandi, and this brightly colored beef brisket cherry tomato sauce recipe is an example. The video shows two major deviations to my usual ragu-how-to: I used beef brisket instead of chuck; and I used some fresh cherry tomatoes, instead of all canned product.

The result is a deeply flavored sauce, heavy with that special beefiness that only a brisket can bring. Despite being such a slowly cooked dish, the fragrant cherry tomatoes give the sauce a surprisingly bright, fresh flavor and glow.

The brisket does take a long time to cook, but all that connective tissue adds a certain body that I love in a meat sauce. I cheated here with some additional boneless beef short rib meat I had on hand, so feel free to add any tough, stewing cuts of beef.

As I mentioned in the video, if you haven't seen how we finish our pasta recipes around here, click on some of the links you'll see below the post, or in the pasta category, and watch the last steps.

Sauces like this should never be ladled over drained pasta! You need to let the hot pasta absorb some of the sauce before serving – so check it out, and enjoy!

I love your stuff!!! Is there any way to print the recipes so I don't have to go back to the den and see what step is next? If it is already right in front of my face, be nice,I am new to you haha :)Barbara

Thank you for such wonderful recipe again! They're fool proof and I got so many compliments when I brought these food to the table. The secret is really to make everything from scratch.. even the tomato paste. And of course, to choose chicken stock instead of beef broth :)

Is it me or do you use more cherry tomatoes than what's on the listed ingredients. You mention both red and gold cherry tomatoes in the video, but just the sweet red ones in the list. Were you mentioning using either kind?

Hi Chef John, we did the recipe exactly as you specified, and it turned out really salty. Who could the culprit be: the chicken broth? the tomato sauce? The tomato paste? Everything else was natural and we added no salt. Would do it again if we can solve the problem. Any suggestions?

Made this tonight for my 1 year anniversary. It was EXCELLENT! My husband can't stop talking about how good it is. The brisket just falls to bits. I bought mine from Costco so it was actually 3.1 pounds instead of 2.5, but hey, just means more meat! It added a little bit to the cooking time I think, but was well worth it. Time consuming, but SO EASY. That browning trick was awesome! TONS of left-over sauce. Can't wait to use it again!

I´m having 9 people over for dinner in a couple of weeks and I´m thinking about making this dish. Should I double/triple the amount of ingredints, or is it enough as it is? Also, is it ok to use fresh tagliatelle instead of penne?